Match report: Australia vs West Indies 3rd Test, Day 2
A rain soaked day saw the stumps being declared on the second day of the final Test series between Australia and West Indies. Play was suspended in hopes of the rains letting up but that proved to be futile.
West Indies started off at 207 runs for 6 wickets. They had won the toss but got off to a bad start getting at 55 runs off 5 wickets. Play began with Nathan Lyon bowling the first three balls before the umpires called for the covers to be put on due to the persistent rains. Play resumed only to be halted after three and half overs. 76 overs had to be bowled before play ended but it seemed unlikely that the rains would permit that.
A mere 11.2 overs were bowled today as Australia managed to get the wicket of Carlos Brathwaite on a delivery via James Pattinson which knocked the off stump over. Brathwaite managed a score of 69 runs on 71 deliveries. “All the West Indies should take a leaf out of this guy’s book.” Ian Healy said. “He is just proactive, he looks to put the pressure back on the bowlers all the time.”
Play ended with Ramdin (30) on the crease with Roach (0). West Indies stood at 248 runs having lost 7 wickets. Interestingly, 248 is also the number of wickets procured by Richie Benaud, whose memory was celebrated at this Test.
501 fans arrived dressed up as Richie Benaud to mark the sum of his 190 test number, 63 test matches and 248 wickets.
“It is the pink Test, and day three is Jane McGrath Day. Why can’t day two be Richie Benaud Day?” Nine’s Ben Fordham said, dressed up to the nies in a full Benaud kit.
“This is the first one at Richie’s home ground since he passed away so we wanted to make this the best we could in terms of honouring him,” group founder Michael Hennessy said. “This will be the most we’ve ever had. Our aim is for the second day of the SCG Test to be known as ‘Richie Benaud Day’ and we’d love all cricket fans to get behind it,” Hennessy said. “The younger fans grew up listening to him as a commentator, but the more you learn about Richie the more you appreciate how great he was as a cricketer and captain of Australia.”
It is safe to assume that the officials will be trageting an early start to Day 3 to attempt to get ahead of the weather. Day 2 saw just 41 runs scored and 1 wicket falling.